The London Cartoon

When the Edenton women's resolution reached London, a cartoonist named Philip Dawe published a satirical print. It showed the women signing their document in a disorderly scene — babies on the floor, a dog drinking from a teapot, the women dressed provocatively. The cartoon was meant to mock them: look at these women playing politics. In Edenton, people had the same reaction as the Bostonians did when their tea party was ridiculed: they kept going. Penelope Barker, whose name headed the document, was 51 years old when she organized the pledge. She had been widowed twice. She was not playing.